Bolt Hole Stampede

Bidding wars, gazumping and driving hundreds of miles for viewings – the great British dash for a second home.

The most popular second-home spot is one of the country’s most famous seaside towns: Scarborough in North Yorkshire.  The average spent on a holiday home in Scarborough in the past year was £280,000, according to Hamptons.

Research for The Sunday Times by Hamptons shows that the favoured locations for second-home buyers in the past year contain many well-known holiday favourites – with Scarborough topping the leader board with 41% of sales being to second homers and Hambleton with 8% of sales to second homers (and an average second home price of £281,700). 

Stuart Bleasdale branch manager at Beadnall Copley in Harrogate, says the second-home buyers in the county’s popular Hambleton District tend to be locals.  “Like me, they live in places like Harrogate and have a second home near the Dales so they can go walking from their doorsteps at the weekends”.

Relocating Londoners might be tempted to head to Harrogate, but Bleasdale says they will get more for their money in Hambleton.  “A classic double-fronted Georgian, three bedroom cottage with beams and a log-burner near Northallerton might cost £250,000 to £300,000, in Harrogate it would be £500,000.”

(Edited from an original article by Carol Lewis, ST Deputy Property Editor)